As Deadline revealed in May, Grant is playing MP Jeremy Thorpe, the first British politician to stand trial for conspiracy and incitement to murder. He’s returning to British television for the first time since the early 90s as the disgraced MP who in 1979 was tried for conspiring to murder his ex-lover, Norman Scott. He was acquitted but it nevertheless ended his political career.

Whishaw is playing Scott. This is a reteam with the BBC for the James Bond actor after the BAFTA-winning and Golden Globe nominated London Spy.

A Very English Scandal is based on the bestselling book by John Preston and written by Davies.

This will be the first production from Sony-backed Blueprint Television, which launched last June. Headed by Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin and Dominic Treadwell-Collins, it’s the sister company to Blueprint Pictures, which produced The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and the upcoming Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri which debuts in Venice next month.

A Very English Scandal is executive produced by Treadwell-Collins, Broadbent and Czernin, and Lucy Richer for the BBC.